King’s dream remains elusive

Amid all the noise in this universe, the truest and purest of words penetrate our souls.

They reverberate across generations, and tingle like goosebumps. They bind us to one another, and tether our awareness to the only moment that matters. This moment.

The wrong words, harsh and hate-filled, steeped in misunderstanding and rooted in fear, hit like bludgeons. They divide and scar. They take us away. From one another. From the moment. From ourselves. But all of that washes away with the right words. Words that bring us together. Words that stir our souls. Words that are timeless and expansive.

“I have a dream.”

Those were the rightest of right words in 1963, and they remain so to this day.

It has been 55 years since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered them in what we now call his “I have a dream” speech during a momentous march in Washington, D.C., in August 1963. A march that led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

We honor King’s birthday every year because he embodied the best of what is inside each of us. To love one another. To honor every person’s inherent dignity and worth. To see beyond race and religion and to understand that we are inextricably bound. That our freedom and prosperity are intertwined.

We honor King because he was an American hero. Because he demanded we aspire to the noblest of heights, and because we know deep down that his dream has not been achieved. If only, all men, women and children were judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin.

That grand vision has inspired progress, yet remains out of reach on a number of fronts.

It is unfulfilled in the shootings of black men across this nation.

It is unfulfilled in the economic segregation that defines San Antonio and so many other cities.

It is unfulfilled in the politics of gerrymandering that disenfranchise minority voters, as do other voting restrictions, such as voter ID laws.

It is unfulfilled in the brutish symbolism of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, an archaic tool to push away immigrants and outsiders.

It is unfulfilled in the resurgence of white nationalism and the surge in anti-Semitism.

But unfulfilled is different from lost. Even in these fractured times, this nation has not lost sight of King’s vision.

King was cut down in the prime of his life by an assassin’s bullet, but even then his words could not be muted. They have endured and offer a blueprint for his vision. They continue to speak to our better selves.

They remind us that progress need not be gradual if we are engaged in the “fierce of urgency of now.” That we can never be satisfied with the racial and social progress we have achieved, nor should we choose to turn back from the path of equality, or choose to walk that path alone.

So many years after his death, King’s voice still resonates across our nation. It booms so much louder than any fractious and impulsive tweet. He remains intensely relevant to this moment, which is exactly why we remember and honor his life.